All The Right Moves

All The Right Moves- Chapter 22

Ethan chuckled, "You can hit on that one over there. I think he's been eyeing you down the second we got here."

Ethan pointed over to the male nurse sitting behind the computer gawking at us.

Noticing my stare, he winked at me and shot me a smirk.

We all laughed in unison.

That was just about the closest to flirting I'd ever get with somebody other than Charlie.

We waited a bit longer outside in the hall, making small conversation until Dr. Villani finally came out with news.

"Good news first. She seems to be cooperating well and is very alert and responsive. This is excellent considering her trauma." He said as he flipped around his clipboard.

He fiddled with the papers, jotting some last minute notes in before speaking again. "Bad news is that she is suffering from some memory loss. Just how extensive, we don't know. It seems that she remembers everything before that day she described before but nothing after."

"So what does that mean?" I interjected.

"It means that she doesn't remember anything from what's happened from that day to this point. She can't recollect any memories after and we are unsure how long this will last. Could be days, months, years. We don't know." He told us, causing the three of us to simply look confused.

We had fought our biggest hurdle with nearly losing her, we would not let this be another obstacle we didn't overcome.

"Can you tell me if anything significantly traumatic happened after her last memory?" Dr. Villani asked us.

I itched the back of my head before responding, "We all fell asleep and woke up to the news that her ex-boyfriend had passed away in a car accident."

The Doctor nodded as if something clicked in his mind.

"Short-term memory loss isn't uncommon for a traumatic brain injury such as Charlie's. She took a very strong blow to her head. It seems as if she is suffering from some form of memory loss. Typically, what we see in patients is post-traumatic amnesia. Charlie is showing some signs of that however, is very much oriented. This is where it gets tricky, as she doesn't remember the accident or anything that occurred after the death of her boyfriend." He stated.

"Ex-boyfriend," I clarified.

"My apologies, ex-boyfriend." He corrected.

"Typically, we see patients regain their memories within a few weeks, or months' time following the accident. I don't have all the answers you're most likely looking for at the moment. But go easy on her. I'm not sure how you all want to approach this but overloading her with information will cause her to be frustrated, confused, and overwhelmed. Just be mindful. We are going to go ahead and take her for some scans soon." He added.

"Drew! We came as fast as we could when we got your text." I heard Charlie's mother shout from the hall.

She, along Charlie's brothers, and my parents were ushering their way allowing the Doctor to excuse himself.

"You guys can go in and see her, but just be cautious," I began to say not knowing how to approach the elephant in the room.

"What do you mean?" My mother asked confused.

Ethan cleared his throat before speaking, "Charlie is suffering from a bit of short term memory loss. They're going to run some tests to see the extent of it but no one knows."

Charlie's mother looked confused, "What doesn't she seem to remember?"

I fixated my stare to the ground.

I felt as if the last two weeks had been catching up to me in that moment, feeling absolutely drained.

Without wanting to hear any more dialogue coming from Ethan, I walked away from everyone and headed out of the hospital.

Knowing that Charlie's family as well as my parents wanted to visit her, I needed to respect some time for them to see her.

There was nothing more that I wanted than to go upstairs right now and cuddle the hell out of her, but I was finding her memory loss a difficult pillow to swallow.

Sitting on the bench outside the hospital, I shot my head back and looked at the sky.

It was nighttime now, and the stars were absolutely stunning.

I let out a deep breath.

I was grateful Charlie made it back to me.

Lucky that she wasn't taken away from me.

So why did I have a huge weight on my chest still?

I had never underwent such a rollercoaster of emotions in my entire life.

When Charlie had lost Wesley, I wanted to rip apart everything that he had done to her that had upset her before he was killed.

I had never seen her torn apart in my entire life.

The emotions, heartache, and sadness felt during then, were all resurfacing but in full force now.

This was those emotions but on steroids.

"She woke up. She's alive. Get it together," I told myself.

That was most important.

I wasn't sure what was to happen here forward, or if Charlie's memories would resurface. But I needed to be there for her, no matter what.

I would always be there for her, whether that meant sacrificing whatever it was.

I stood up and made my way back inside the hospital.

If there was one thing that I did know in this moment, was that my love for her far surpassed any illness that came our way.

I would be there for her, always.